ABSTRACT
Otto Friedrich Gruppe (1804-1876), whose Gegenwart und Zukunft der Philosophie in Deutschland (1855) is the subject of this review, was one of the learned circle George Eliot and Lewes had known during their stay in Berlin in 1854-1855. She seems to have been fascinated by Gruppe, in whom she found a curious type of the German Gelehrter fully developed. Describing him in a letter to Sara Hennell, she wrote:
'He has written books on everything—on the Greek drama—a great book on the Cosmic Systems of the Greeks—an epic, numberless lyric: poems etc.—he has a philosophical work and a history of literature in the press—is professor of philosophy at the University—has invented a mode of staining paper beautifully for bookcovers—is enthusiastic about Boar-hunting, and has written a volume of hunting-poems—and ich weiss nicht was. Withal he is as simple as a child.' 1
